Category: Fablery

Fablery is a short story writing contest and it aims to provide aspiring writers an opportunity to come out of their shells and get published. The ‘Ten Shades of Life’ edited by Nethra A is a mosaic of stories that topped each genre in the contest. The diverse categories under which the contest was conducted and the relentless editing done my miss Nethra has ensured that the diversity has not been lost as the stories moved from entries in a story writing contest to the ones that appear in a collection of short stories. The individual authors Miss Cheyenne Mitchell, Monika Pant, Dr. Roshan Radhakrishnan, Shankar Raman A, Bruce Memblatt, Karthik L, Reshmy Pillai, Deepa Duraisamy, Vinaya Swapnil Bhagat and Rahul Biswas has each produced an interesting original containing their unique signature fro the book.

The stories are bound to take the readers on a roller-coaster ride but the title of the book can be a little misleading. Most of the stories though are a stunning piece of fiction has not much to do with life or the virtues of life. Each story revolves around its own theme and there is no real continuity between them. This has to be expected considering that each has been crafted by individuals who where never in contact and who possess not much in common expect an unrelenting passion for writing fiction.

A better way to look at the book is to see it as a collection of individual stories that has its own unique flavor than as a collection of stories. The book contains ten different stories each from a different genre, and each the best in its own genre.

The Ten Shades of Life is an official Rupertt Aryeen Wind Recommendation

INCARDINES by Miss Cheyenne Mitchell

A rather intriguing story of a girl, her parents and the mystery surrounding their lives. The girl finds the answers to the question of her family that is slowly drifting apart in a book so coincidentally mentioned by her friend. The narration is rather porous and at times you do wonder how it all came to be so, many a questions are left unanswered and mostly most of it makes no sense whats so ever.

RED AND GOLD by Monika Pant

A romantic and touching story of love and belonging, The story touches you at someplace in your heart as the narration goes on. The story is intriguing and with a slight tinge of history in it, it just is a good read.

HARRY’S BLUFF by Dr. Roshan Radhakrishnan

A fast action packed thriller and so full of twists and turns and twists with in twists that you just keep on reading till you reach the logical end. A true nail bitter and it sure is one of the best stories the book has to offer.

SOMETHING LIKE THAT by Shankar Raman A

A light hearted and delightful comedy with its own interesting and well though out twists. its just another good read in this anthology.

WEEKEND IN THE COUNTRY by Bruce Memblatt

A appreciable attempt at horror, does it scare you no it does not, it does not even give you a shiver down you spine but its still a good story and the narration is very well done but its just isn’t the horror story it is meant to be that’s it. A story that many will find interesting.

A NOOTROPIC EGRESS by Karthik L

This story is quite frankly a rather strange mix of one of the most wildly used elements in stories featuring extra terrestrial intelligence that it borders on fictional cliche and the unconventional boy goes to Europe version. This is a strange story for all that matters and the story line is again porous and narration battles hard to hold water but fails. In my opinion this happened to be the most disappointing story that I found in this book.

THE SECRET OF AHIRAAH by Reshmy Pillai

This is a very interesting and engaging story with its own shades of history and life beautifully weaved in to it. This is easily one of the better stories you will find in the book if not the best one. The only problem I have had with the story is that it finished way too fast, if only it did last a bit longer.

WHERE DID YOU GO by Deepa Duraisamy

This is a beautiful thriller that would quench the thirst of any thriller lover, a beautifully crafted story set in the real with with no larger than life characters and a very powerful message carefully disguised in the lines of a thriller.

BARREN HARVEST by Vinaya Swapnil Bhagat

A bold take on the world of tomorrow , bruised and destroyed by the carelessness and ignorance of man today along the lines of George Orwell’s 1984 and the Hollywood film equilibrium The authors attempts bravely to answer the question sod mechanized emotions and the mechanicallity of life in the future where humans become prisoners of their own inventions and discoveries.

A GOOD DAY TO DIE by Rahul Biswas

A real life drama that envelopes the life of three firefighters and their friends and families, the complicated realities of life and the many things that they do in the name of self preservation. A beautifully crafted drama that is what this story is.

About the Editor

Based in Bangalore, Nethra is pursuing her Masters in Business Administration and is a graduate in Computer Science & Engineering. She is a voracious reader and a fiction writer, who puts quality writing over everything else. Her interest in good stories and writing made her start a platform, Fablery, which provides aspiring authors a gateway into the publishing world. She is also working on her novel that she hopes to complete in the near future.

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
― Mae West